California seizes $30M in black market cannabis from illegal shops
LA Times's PATRICK MCGREEVY: "California authorities have tripled the number of raids on unlicensed cannabis shops in the last year and seized $30 million in pot products, but legal industry leaders say enforcement is still inadequate to break the dominance of the black market in the state."
"In 2018, the first year of licensing, the state Bureau of Cannabis Control worked with local law enforcement to serve six search warrants on unlicensed pot shops and seized some 1,594 pounds of cannabis worth $13.5 million."
"During the first six months of this year, the bureau served 19 search warrants on unlicensed sellers, confiscating more than 2,500 pounds of illegal marijuana products with a retail value of $16.5 million, according to data released last week. The state has also seized $219,874 in cash from illegal pot shops."
Newsom's death penalty moratorium isn't saving California money. Here's why
Sacramento Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order halting the death penalty in California, he argued the system has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. But without cooperation from prosecutors, there’s no evidence his action is saving the state any money."
"In general, death penalty trials are far more expensive than those for people facing a maximum sentence of life without possibility of parole. It’s also more expensive to house inmates on death row than in a regular prison unit."
"Newsom’s moratorium granted temporary reprieves for death row inmates, closed the state’s execution chamber and withdrew the state’s lethal injection protocol. It doesn’t stop capital cases from proceeding."
China Lake: When a quake hits a secret area
LISA RENNER in Capitol Weekly: "Damaged buildings, torn up roads and water lines and multiple aftershocks are among the challenges residents of the Ridgecrest area are dealing with following two big earthquakes beginning July 4."
"The epicenter of the quakes was the Naval Weapons Air Station at China Lake, which does research into military weapons in the Mojave Desert. Because of the secret nature of its work, the state Seismic Safety Commission has been unable to go in and check out what is happening, said Commission Chairman Mike Gardner."
"The shaking started on Independence Day with a 6.4 earthquake, followed by a much larger 7.1 earthquake the next day. There have been repeated aftershocks since, including most recently a magnitude 4.2 temblor on Monday at 1:38 a.m."
Billionaire Tom Steyer needs your money, or his campaign is doomed
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "Billionaire former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer inadvertently sent a message to potential donors when he promised to spend $100 million on his Democratic presidential campaign: I don’t need your money."
"The problem is, while Steyer doesn’t need money, he needs donors — 130,000 of them — to qualify for the Democratic National Committee’s Sept. 12 debate in Houston. That’s in addition to support of 2% or more in four national or early-voting-state polls."
"The San Francisco billionaire started shaking his tin cup during an appearance Wednesday in the city when he said: “I want everyone to give me one buck so I can get on that stage."
Longtime California House member faces tough race -- from a fellow Democrat
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "For the past 14 years, Fresno Rep. Jim Costa has managed to hold off Republicans seeking to grab his Central Valley congressional seat. But a fellow Democrat could be his toughest challenger in 2020."
"Fresno City Councilwoman Esmeralda Soria, the daughter of farmworkers, will run against Costa next year, hoping to parlay her Latina heritage and her political base in the 16th Congressional District’s largest city into a seat in Washington, D.C."
“Congress is broken, and we need new leadership,” Soria said in a three-minute video announcing her candidacy. “D.C. politicians like my opponent put the interests of corporations over us.”
Could Dems own Orange County? This 2020 race is key
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "For Democrat Josh Newman, reclaiming the Orange County state Senate seat he lost in a 2018 recall is a matter of simple justice. But for California Democratic leaders, it’s a chance to show that the party’s inroads into the state’s GOP heart last year were anything but a one-time fluke."
"Absolutely it’s a race,” said Jim Nygren, the consultant for GOP state Sen. Ling Ling Chang, who lost to Newman by fewer than 2,500 votes in 2016, then won the seat when he was recalled. “It will probably be the most interesting race in the state” in 2020."
"Orange County, for decades a bastion for conservative Republicans, was inundated by the Democrats’ blue wave in November. Not only did Democrats flip four GOP-held congressional seats, but they also sent a pair of Republican legislators packing."
California tightens rules for going back to work after CalPERS disability retirement
Sacramento Bee's WES VENTEICHER: "A new California law tightens requirements for CalPERS pensioners who go back to work after retiring on disability."
"The law focuses on retired annuitants, who can return to work after retirement and keep collecting pension benefits under certain conditions, including that they wait 180 days to go back to work and then work less than 960 hours per year."
"Annuitants who retired on disability can’t return to the same job they had or to jobs with the same duties at CalPERS employers, the new law specifies. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill created the law July 12."
Fight to change California's landmark consumer privacy law fizzles -- for now
The Chronicle's DUSTIN GARDINER: "As a consumer, Dirk Lorenz says he understands the anxiety many people feel about online ads that seem to stalk their search and social media visits. He, too, finds the mass collection of personal data invasive."
"But as the longtime owner of Fremont Flowers, Lorenz said California lawmakers’ antidote to those concerns could be toxic for small retailers like him."
"A year ago, the Legislature passed the California Consumer Privacy Act, the most sweeping law of its kind in the nation, with lightning speed. The law’s requirements are significant — consumers can tell businesses not to sell their data or demand that they delete the information altogether."
(OP-ED): All Californians should have safe, clean water. But how do we make it happen?
DAN SCHNUR in a Special to the Sacramento Bee: "When there are 1 million Californians without access to clean drinking water, doing the right thing shouldn’t be complicated."
"Few California urbanites grasp the intolerable, third-world conditions that nearly a million of their fellow Californians live in when it comes to accessing safe drinking water,” said Michael Mantell, president of the Resources Legacy Fund. “That residents of a state with the fifth largest economy on the planet lack that access is nothing short of scandalous."
"Lea Ann Tratten, a partner at TrattenPrice Consulting, described the Californians who suffer most without access to clean water and reiterated the urgency for action."
Two riots in two days at California prison involve more than 200 inmates
Sacramento Bee's WES VENTEICHER: "Thursday morning’s riot was the second in two days at Pleasant Valley State Prison, where 182 inmates rioted at noon Wednesday, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation."
"The two riots, which were in different facilities at the prison, were unrelated, said Lt. Jose Benavides, a corrections department spokesman."
"The corrections department published a news release Thursday afternoon saying a morning attack by three inmates on a fourth had escalated to a 41-inmate riot in the Facility B recreation yard. Correctional officers quelled the riot with chemical agents and two warning shots. Three inmates were injured, according to the release."
1 council vote kills San Bruno housing plan near transit that the city had sought
The Chronicle's JK DINEEN: "Over the past three years, developer Mike Ghielmetti did everything he was supposed to do to get a 425-unit housing project approved on El Camino Real in San Bruno."
"It seemed the city of 43,000, home to BART and Caltrain stations, was ready to welcome housing. Some other Peninsula cities have fought residential development for decades. In contrast, San Bruno officials and voters recently embraced rezoning a swath of the city’s downtown for transit-oriented housing. They asked developers to come up with projects as part of a plan that called for 1,600 new homes, as well as shops and restaurants."
"Ghielmetti, president of Signature Development Group, answered the city’s call. He followed the city’s transit corridor plan — approved by nearly 70% of voters — and spent $3 million on the approval process, repeatedly altering the project at 601-611 El Camino Real at the behest of residents and city staff."
Targeting Bay Area gridlock, groups floating $100B tax measure
The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN: "From BART trains packed to capacity during the commute to freeways that jam well before dawn, the strain on the Bay Area’s transportation backbone is intensifying."
"And with the region’s population expected to swell from 7.75 million to nearly 10 million by 2040, big engineering fantasies like a second trans-bay rail crossing and a stretch of Caltrain tracks through downtown San Francisco have become urgent needs. But the projects won’t come cheap: The Bay Area needs hundreds of billions of dollars to build them."
"This isn’t a problem that’s going to wait for us — we really need to run at it,” said Jim Wunderman, president and chief executive of the Bay Area Council, an advocacy group for major employers like Google and Kaiser Permanente."
Did Equifax expose your data? You can apply for part of a $600M settlement
Sacramento Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Millions of Californians whose personal data was compromised by the credit-monitoring company Equifax can now get money from a $600 million settlement states reached with the credit reporting bureau, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office announced Monday."
"California and other states sued Equifax, arguing the credit agency exposed personal information of 147 million customers. Compromised data includes customer names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and some driver’s license numbers, according to Becerra’s office."
"Customers’ data was compromised in a cyberattack from mid-May through July 2017, but the company only announced the breach in September of that year. Neither the company nor government agencies have disclosed who was behind the data breach."
SCOTUS Justice Thomas the leading edge of conservative wing
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "States shouldn’t have to provide lawyers to criminal defendants who can’t afford them. Courts should allow discrimination by race and sex in jury selection. The constitutional separation of church and state shouldn’t apply to state governments."
"Those views don’t come from some radical conservative manifesto, but from the published opinions of the Supreme Court’s longest-serving member, Justice Clarence Thomas, in the 2018-19 term that ended last month. And while Thomas was speaking only for himself, his perspectives could change the legal landscape if adopted by a conservative court majority that has been invigorated with the addition of President Trump’s appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh."
"The year was one of Thomas’ most productive “in terms of significance for the court’s jurisprudence going forward,” said Scott Gerber, a law professor at Ohio Northern University and author of a book on Thomas’ legal writings."
Will Mueller's testimony spark new impeachment talk?
McClatchy's DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Democrats who back opening an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump are hoping former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s appearance Wednesday before two House committees gives the effort a pivotal boost."
"Despite a House vote last week to reject opening impeachment proceedings — a vote widely dismissed as having nothing to do with Mueller’s findings — supporters are continuing to move ahead with a serious look at whether an formal inquiry is warranted."
"“We continue doing what we’re doing in the Judiciary Committee, reviewing evidence, seeking evidence, seeking fact witnesses, going to court to get our subpoenas enforced,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told McClatchy."
Under Trump, US emphasis on human rights abroad is shifting toward religious protections
LA Times's TRACY WILKINSON: "Little by little President Trump and America’s top diplomat, Michael R. Pompeo, are revamping the nation’s approach to advocating for human rights abroad, cozying up to some of the world’s worst offenders and prioritizing religious freedom — particularly for Christians — often at the expense of poor women, gay people and other marginalized communities."
"Secretary of State Pompeo, who says his Christian faith permeates his policy, is calling for America to shift its human rights focus to the principles of individual liberty espoused by the nation’s founders, even if that means backing away from the modern-day priorities that have become most associated with the international human rights movement."
"At the same time, he and Trump have embraced dictators who were once shunned by U.S. officials, particularly those leaders who profess a devotion to the protection of Christians."
How US video game companies are building tools for China's surveillance state
LA Times's JAMES B CUTCHIN: "Last October, software developers at Riot Games in Santa Monica fielded an unusual request. Like other video game makers, Riot’s success depends on its ability to make games that are compulsively playable, like its global hit “League of Legends.” But Tencent, the Chinese tech giant that owns Riot, needed a way to force some of its most enthusiastic customers to play less."
"While it has owned a controlling stake in Riot since 2011, Tencent has generally been hands-off when it comes to the company’s products. But facing increasing pressure from Chinese state media and regulators over its role in a supposed epidemic of video game addiction, Tencent needed a way to track how much time individual gamers in China spent playing “League of Legends” — and kick out minors who exceeded two hours per day. If Riot engineers didn’t supply an “anti-addiction system” for “League of Legends,” they might lose access to the Chinese market altogether."
"Within weeks, an update brought these features to the Chinese version of “League of Legends."
